Challenge West Virginia

November 20, 2018

Challenge West Virginia is a statewide organization of parents, educators and other West Virginians committed to maintaining and improving small community schools. Our goal is to reform education in the Mountain State so that citizens have a voice in policy decisions and every child has the opportunity to receive a first-class education and the promise of a bright future.

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — Fayette County is going to try and solve its major problem with school buildings without passing a bond issue.

The main building at Collins Middle School in Oak Hill was closed in January because of structural problems.

The $50 million plan, unveiled Thursday night by Fayette County School Superintendent Terry George at a well-attended meeting in Hico, would consolidate four existing high schools (Oak Hill, Midland Trail, Meadow Bridge, Fayetteville) and use three of those buildings for new K-8 schools. The building housing Oak Hill High would become the new Collins Middle School. A new elementary school would be built in the Mount Hope area.

George, who has been on the job for less than three months, doesn’t believe Fayette County can pass a bond issue. It rejected plans this year, in 2009 and 2001. The last bond to pass was 1973.

“They (the residents) feel they can’t absorb any more taxation, it’s a very economically depressed area,” George said Friday on MetroNews ‘Talkline’. “They feel the state needs to do something to help them because financially they can’t afford to do it themselves.”

George hopes to float the plan before the state School Building Authority for funding. The county would also have its own money to contribute, he said.

“I can’t tell you how the School Building Authority will vote on that but I think it’s going to be based upon our presentation and how much we can demonstrate the need here in Fayette County,” George said.

The SBA has traditionally been more accommodating to requests from county’s that include local funding that bond issues provide.

There has been at least 20 years of deferred maintenance in Fayette County, according to George. There are several schools that still use coal to heat their buildings and two schools that currently have sections where students aren’t allowed in because of structural problems.

Closing six schools would free up money to come up with a comprehensive maintenance plan, George said.

George and others came up with the plan after evaluating the county’s 18 school buildings and deciding which of them could last for 25 years.

“If we didn’t feel we could renovate the building and sustain it for 25 years we designated it as one to close,” he said. “The whole point here is to develop a county school system that is sustainable.”

The Fayette County school system is under the control of the state Department of Education. The department seized control because of several problems, including facilities, a few years ago. George was appointed to the job earlier this year by state School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano.